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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Keeping Children Safe from Sniper

Aired October 23, 2002 - 06:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the issue of children's safety while the sniper is still on the loose and on a possible second letter found, I'm joined by our law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks.
Thanks for being back up here with us, Mike.

A word from the -- a newspaper that a second letter -- the "Baltimore Sun" reporting that a second letter was found at the scene yesterday. Could Chief Moose's comments yesterday have been regarding that letter?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think some of them were, when --especially when he said you indicated that this was about more than just violence, we're waiting to hear from you. What did that mean, you know, and more than just violence.

We talked a little earlier about, you know, does this mean political or social objectives that this person is trying to achieve? I -- and I still feel he has achieved some of his social objectives by taking away the lives of the children in Montgomery County and the Washington, D.C. area. He's also paralyzed Washington, D.C. every time that there's a shooting. So you know if he's trying to achieve that and that is one of his motives or her motives, their motives, then they're achieving that.

CALLAWAY: We just heard the school superintendent was concerned about information from the alleged sniper on all of this. It's so difficult to handle this. Should they have notified the school superintendent? Is too much information not a good thing?

BROOKS: No, I think they should have notified the superintendent to let them make the decision exactly on what they feel they should do for the safety of their own children. I think that's why last night Chief Moose came out and made that comment, your children are not safe anywhere at any time, just to let the parents know, let the school superintendents know in the Washington Metropolitan area that this is what the sniper or the shooter is saying...

CALLAWAY: Right.

BROOKS: ... and I think we needed to act accordingly.

CALLAWAY: Difficult role now, though, for the police to have to protect the children. That's almost an impossible task with so many kids in school. BROOKS: Extremely -- it's almost impossible. We saw early on that some of the -- some of the federal uniformed officers had come in, the uniformed division of Secret Service, U.S. Park Police had come in and were in the area of some of the schools. And then right after that we had a school shooting. So you know you -- I think they -- they're afraid to bring it up to see if this is going to fuel the shooter. I think they're -- they -- it's they're walking a very fine line...

CALLAWAY: Yes, they are.

BROOKS: ... and it's an extremely, extremely sensitive time right now in the investigation.

CALLAWAY: But you can't just shut down all of the schools.

BROOKS: No.

CALLAWAY: I mean what do you do?

BROOKS: Well school has opened back up in the Richmond area again yesterday or today. And I've -- from what I heard yesterday, some of the Catholic schools in Montgomery County, some of the parochial schools had closed -- decided to close their doors. So it's -- you know it's a fine line. You're -- you know you're criticized if you do and you're criticized if you don't.

CALLAWAY: Do you get the Guard involved?

BROOKS: That's up to the governor. That's up to the governor of Maryland. That's up to the mayor of the District of Columbia, the governor of Virginia. More bodies -- you know more bodies on the street, more people on the street, is that -- is that going to prevent this shooter, it doesn't seem to have so far...

CALLAWAY: No, it doesn't.

BROOKS: ... with all the investigators. So is that -- is that a solution, I think it's -- you know it's something else they could throw at the -- at the problem, but I don't know if it's going to be the solution or not.

CALLAWAY: All right, I'm sure we'll hear more from the chief today.

Thank you for sorting it all out for us -- Mike.

BROOKS: All right then.

CALLAWAY: See you a little bit later.

In addition to continuing coverage of the sniper on CNN's main Web page site, CNN.com now has a special report on the shootings, "Sniper Attacks: A Trail of Terror." It has some interactive maps for you, timelines, profiles of the victims, much more. Just click on to CNN.com. The AOL keyword is CNN. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



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